“What will we do?”
Amy Carmichael, a young and very poor Scottish missionary, asked this challenging question concerning her work with the impoverished people of India over a century ago. It pertained to what Christ taught in the Scriptures about the poor and it demands an answer from us today—just as much as it did for the people one hundred years ago.
“Are these things truth [concerning the condition of the poor] or are they imagination? If they are imagination—then let the paper on which they are written be burnt, burnt till it curls up and the words fall into dust. But if they are true—then what are we going to do? Not what are we going to say or sing, or even feel or pray—but what are we going to do?”
~ Amy Charmichael, from her book, Things As They Are, published in 1903.
We want to do something! The reason we chose the name StoneHouse Ministries International for our ministry is found in this scriptural passage:
Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1Pe 2:4-5)
We are laboring to become that house in Kenya today. StoneHouse Ministries International (SMI) is a registered international ministry that covers everything we do.
To read regular updates, visit our Facebook page.
SMI Creation and Oversight of Churches
We believe in a ‘holistic’ approach to church life. This means that all areas of our lives must come under the control of the Holy Spirit. We help our members with health and medical, parenting, marriage, ideas for earning a living, small business loans, and anything else that pertains to living this Life.
StoneHouse Fellowship is the name of our church families in Kenya, We currently have eleven local (meaning either city, town, or village boundaries) churches that each currently oversee one to three home churches. The goal of each home church is to evangelize, baptize and disciple new members. When they numerically outgrow their available meeting space they begin another home church in another location.
We try to keep the home church number of members around 10 to 25 adults and 10 to twenty children. The size varies from church to church. This allows for intimacy to develop spiritual growth and allows for individual spiritual gifts to be exercised. On special occasions, all the home churches in the local church will gather together in one place.
It is important to us that what we teach be demonstrated in our daily lives so people will understand what we mean in our presentation of the scriptures. So, we work hard at taking care of and being accountable to each other. We are also laboring to create small businesses for our members enabling them to sustain their own individual families and have something more to share with others.
African Shepherds Alliance
We continue to reach out to other ministries and non-StoneHouse churches/pastors for the purpose of coming together. We realize that what our Father has given us is not just for us but for all who call themselves Christians. It is also good to touch other mindsets other than our own.
As a result, we frequently speak and teach at schools, businesses, and to pastors other than our own. We sometimes get together with other non-SMI churches and host local fellowship meetings. We are currently teaching monthly 120 students at one Christian school (Tumaini High School) and 100 weekly at another (Soar Kenya Boarding School).
Assisting Indigenous Missionaries
A. I. M. … Assisting Indigenous Missionaries
We think this ministry’s time has come. We have people from all around Kenya E-mailing, texting, and visiting asking us to come and start a church in their area. They have seen the Website, kept up with our Facebook page, and through visits to WHCC seen with their own eyes what’s happening with us, and they want us to come.
We have church leaders already visiting many of them and are ready to do more. These indigenous missionaries do what they can with the limited resources they have and we want to assist them but we need help. They have families with normal family expenses (food, shelter, school fees, etc.) and have sacrificially met the call to go out and preach the gospel. They all work full-time jobs and still make time to build the church. Here are a few of those leaders …
Windy Hill Christian Community
Since 2009 my wife and I have been working in the impoverished areas (slums) of Kenya. Our first years living here were in and amongst them. We began to realize we needed a place to grow big enough to demonstrate the kind of life we preached. Ten minutes outside of Nakuru our Father provided that place. Here is a short description of what we have been doing at Windy Hill Christian Community.
At WHCC you can see what we mean when we talk about community. There are presently four families living together on the same three-and-a-half acres. We have patterned our lives after the first four chapters of the Book of Acts, in that we share all things and are accountable to each other.
HEALTH AND MEDICAL MINISTRY
Knowing our King cared for people both spiritually and physically, we are burdened to help the infirm and the needy … especially the members of our church families. We want not only to care for their souls but their physical bodies as well. As a result, we do conferences throughout the year on … nutrition, health, and natural holistic remedies.
We also partner with different local hospitals and health organizations to assist disabled and medically needy people. Medical care in Kenya can be obtained at a comparatively low cost, but many cannot afford to pay. Even if they can pay, many are misdiagnosed and are not able to obtain ongoing medicine or therapy afterward. We would like to offer you the opportunity to help us help them.
Helping The Helpless
Helping The Helpless – (HTH) – The Destitute, The Widows, The Orphans and Abandoned Women
Sometimes it is hard to imagine the inward desolation that can come, on so many levels, from being an abandoned wife or becoming a husbandless woman with children or being young and not having someone to love, provide for and protect you. These three categories of people, are in abundance in Kenya and especially those living in the slums.
Letting Educational Adoption Reshape Nakuru
L.E.A.R.N. (Letting Educational Adoption Reshape Nakuru) is a program we have developed to help support school age children in Nakuru, Kenya, through educational sponsorships.
SMI Discipling and Training Center
Here is where we conduct the training of disciples, baptisms, facilitate seminars, leaders council meetings, youth meetings weddings, etc. Our Rotunda will hold almost two hundred people and the kitchen is adequate to feed as many. The male and female dormitories are each equipped with tables, chairs, showers, toilets, and bunk beds.
WIDOWS AND ABANDONED WOMEN
Domestic violence is common in Kenya. Seventy-five percent of women expect to be abused by their husbands. Extreme poverty leads many women into abusive marriages by their hopes of a better life. Yet, a better life rarely happens in such cases. Our ministry provides these women with an alternatives. We offer these women and teenage girls a chance to acquire a skill that will allow them the opportunity to earn a living for themselves and their children.
SEWING SCHOOL
We have established a sewing training center to teach women how to make clothing, school uniforms, and crafts. This provides them with items to sell and enables them to be self-employed. The school is taught and managed currently by Elizabeth Wangui. Each student is sponsored by SMI and at the end of the course is given a sewing machine to take home and establish their own businesses.
HOUSES FOR THE HOMELESS
We build houses for widows and abandoned women. This gives them a rent-free home allowing them to focus their meager income on other necessities of life.
SMALL BUSINESS GRANTS
It takes very little to start a small business here in Kenya. Open markets are common on every street. We help by getting them started with marketable inventory and providing a simple structure kiosk when needed. We teach them business skills including how to manage their income and keep their business going.
Windy Hill AirBnB
https://stonehouseministries.